ABOUT SUPERIOR HEATING LTD
Superior Safety Guards was originally established as Superior Heating Ltd in 1982 by Martin Mullions. It was primarily a general engineering firm focusing on wet backs (water boosters) for solid fuel burners.
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In 1996 youngest son Peter and wife Pieta bought the business, allowing Martin to retire with wife Andree. That same year Pete and Pieta had their first child, son James who basically became the inspiration for the fireguard product. Two years later second son Logan arrived resulting in a thoroughly tried and tested fireguard product!
"James had always been an extremely active baby and we needed a solid well built guard to protect him - as he has always kept us on our toes!" said mum, Pieta.
We trialed several designs before coming up with our present design. From trial and error we found the guard needed to be a solid, strong product made from good quality materials. It also needed to have vertical bars only as the first fireguard design we trialed was a "mesh" type material and we found children were able to climb these - posing an even bigger risk to themselves and potentially causing an even worse injury.
After doing some research and asking mums and dads their opinions, we found that customers wanted the guard to look "attractive", but not to detract from the looks of their fire. Customers also requested a door placed in the front panel of the fireguard which would make access easy for adults when re-stoking the fire, but it had to be extremely safe so littlies couldn't operate it themselves.
Our current fire guard design has been a tremendous success. Peter is very proud to have filled all his customers requests when designing the product and the outcome speaks for itself.
In 2002/2003 we exhibited our guards at the ASG Parent and Child Show in Auckland and Wellington. We were overwhelmed with the positive response we received from so many people. We readily became known as "those people from Christchurch" as friends recommended people to order a guard from us.
Superior safety guards are used by Barnados caregivers in their homes, schools, preschools, Plunket family rooms (which we supply free of charge) and thousands of happy mums and dads all around New Zealand. Our fireguards have been sent as far as 90 Mile Beach and the Chatham Islands.
Superior Safety Guards now employs 3 staff with various contract workers hired to help with the busy winter months. Peter manages the staff and tends to the office work, barely making it into the factory these days! Pieta does all the marketing and design work in between dropping 6 year old James to school and 4 year old Logan to Kindergarten.
Contact us:
Superior Safety Guards
260E Port Hills Road, Christchurch
PO Box 36460, Merivale, Christchurch
Ph 0800 72 33 75
Fax 03 3844 998
Email info@fireguards.co.nz
